Althouse: "Russia’s Olympic team has been barred from the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea."

December 5, 2017

"Russia’s Olympic team has been barred from the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea."

"The country’s government officials are forbidden to attend, its flag will not be displayed at the opening ceremony and its anthem will not sound. Any athletes from Russia who receive special dispensation to compete will do so as individuals wearing a neutral uniform, and the official record books will forever show that Russia won zero medals."

The NYT reports.

31 comments:

Henry said...: Imagine there's no Russia.
It isn't hard to do.
Nothing to dope or drug for.
No state religion too.; 12/5/17, 2:43 PM
n.n said...: We'll always have America, Germany, and France, where the girls are girls and the boys are too, where doping is transitional, and the state religion is selective, unprincipled, and opportunistic, too. No Judgment.; 12/5/17, 2:47 PM
rhhardin said...: The big yawn, it will be called.

It's the network hype that it matters to. They paid big bucks for rights.

I don't think I've ever seen an Olympics.; 12/5/17, 2:50 PM
BarrySanders20 said...: John Ross just reported that this is more evidence of Trump's pre-election collusion to steal the election from Hillary!.; 12/5/17, 2:53 PM
readering said...: Report:

Athletes from Russia are expected to compete at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, from 9 to 25 February 2018 under the Olympic flag and with the designation of Olympic Athlete from Russia (OAR).

Be funny if OAR won men's hockey.; 12/5/17, 2:55 PM
Inga...Allie Oop said...: Maybe Trump will give Putin some aid and comfort.; 12/5/17, 2:56 PM
traditionalguy said...: Its all rigged. This is the losing riggers kicking out the better riggers.; 12/5/17, 2:57 PM
iqvoice said...: This is unfair; the missing Russian athletes will be the only ones to survive the nuclear annihilation.; 12/5/17, 2:58 PM
Curious George said...: "Any athletes from Russia who receive special dispensation to compete will do so as individuals wearing a neutral uniform, "

Trump should give them MAGA hats just to see heads explode.; 12/5/17, 2:59 PM
Oso Negro said...: Our dopers are more cunning and sophisticated than their dopers.; 12/5/17, 3:01 PM
Big Mike said...: Wake me up when they go back to the 1972 and 1976 Olympics and take away the medals from Kornelia Ender and the other heavily doped East German athletes. Until then I assume that illegal steroid use is wink-wink nudge-nudge.; 12/5/17, 3:09 PM
Nonapod said...: I believe that the Olympics is a massively corrupt organization to begin with. Even if they were to somehow convince me that they were able to clean up all the athletes, to me that's the least of their problems. Everything about and around the Olympics just seems so shady to me, the whole "Oh Look, we banned a country for blatant state sponsored doping! Aren't we honest and good!" seems a little bit hollow.; 12/5/17, 3:11 PM
rehajm said...: I don't think I've ever seen an Olympics.

I'll summarize the opening ceremonies for you and you can extrapolate from there: The IOC provides a pool feed for video which for two hours follows each nation's athletes marching into a stadium/ice rink/open field while the camera cuts to the VIP area of the stands where Mr & Mrs. (insert whatever douchebag translates to in native tongue here), that nation's highest ranking corruptocrats, simulate giving two shits by waving excitedly back at their nation's athletes.; 12/5/17, 3:14 PM
lgv said...: No Russia and no Matt Lauer to cover the games and rape women. Things are looking up.; 12/5/17, 3:19 PM
Carter Wood said...: O.A.R. - An inexplicably popular rock band from Rockville, Md.; 12/5/17, 3:22 PM
Etienne said...: If corporations would just stop paying royalties, then the Olympics would die, and the money changers would have to find a new gig.; 12/5/17, 3:42 PM
whitney said...: rehajm said...

corruptocrats

I like it. I'm going to start using that; 12/5/17, 3:49 PM
Drago said...: Inga: "Maybe Trump will give Putin some aid and comfort."

Goid idea!

I understand Putin prizes uranium and flexibility! And thats already done!; 12/5/17, 4:06 PM
Drago said...: "No Russia and no Matt Lauer to cover the games and rape women."

Lots more leftists where those came from.; 12/5/17, 4:07 PM
Humperdink said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 12/5/17, 6:56 PM
Jersey Fled said...: The Russians always saw the Olympics as more a political event than a sports event.

By way of contrast, the U.S. always saw it as a commercial event.; 12/5/17, 7:16 PM
Amadeus 48 said...: "The NYT reports."

I wonder if it is true.; 12/5/17, 7:33 PM
Darrell said...: I invite all the Russian athletes to compete for the Amazon Olympic Team. Bezos can afford it and Google needs its money to pay for more server farms for Blogger. And Bezos, how about sending a little money my way for giving you all these great ideas over the years. You are starting to look a little ungrateful and cheap. Just saying.; 12/5/17, 8:03 PM
bgates said...: Maybe Trump will give Putin

Hey Inga, remember 25 years ago when David Spade from SNL wanted to make a joke about how outdated something was, and so he'd make a joke like "1975 called, it wanted its hairstyle back"?

And then in 2012, President Supergenius showed off his pop culture savvy and his geopolitical wisdom by resurrecting a 20 year old catch phrase from a B-list former late night comic to blow off the idea that Russia was a big concern of ours?

Even though Putin had been in charge throughout Momjeans-in-Chief's Nobel Prize-winning time in office/ESPN studios, from the gift of the Reset Button courtesy of The Most Qualified Woman Ever up through his pretend "red line"?

Why would anybody listen to someone who got suckered in to listening to that arrogant, ignorant buffoon?

I understand Putin prizes uranium and flexibility!

He'd also like to grab Crimea, and get access to a warm water port on the Med - hey, looks like Mission Accomplished for Vlad & Barry on those too!; 12/5/17, 8:22 PM
Henry said...: readering said...
Be funny if OAR won men's hockey.

LOL.

Here's your Venn Diagram:

Highlights of the NHL's Performance Enhancing Substances Program

Active Russian NHL Players; 12/5/17, 8:23 PM
Henry said...: Call it the Alexander Ovechkin social club.

Goalie may be a problem.; 12/5/17, 8:24 PM
The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...: The Olympics have become much like the Emmys. Young people watch neither, which is a pretty strong indicator of what their future looks like. I do find curling fascinating though.; 12/5/17, 8:35 PM
Michael said...: Check out the movie "Icarus" . It's either on Amazon or YouTube. About Russian doping.

And Inga finally gets close to the collusion issue. Trump agreed to relax sanctions and to provide additional plutonium in exchange for two things: Russia not in Winter Olympics and, most importantly, trick American voters into voting for him and not crooked Hillary.; 12/5/17, 8:44 PM
rehajm said...: If I knew you were commin...; 12/5/17, 8:49 PM
SoLastMillennium said...: President Carter was not available for comment...; 12/5/17, 9:32 PM
Jaq said...: Curling is great because of the women. Something about ice and snow just makes their complexions glow. Not to mention that they are often cute, but don't have the predatory good looks of most of the women that age you see on television. You could picture Flo from the insurance ads doing curling. You just want to snuggle up with them after the match for hot chocolate around a fire It's no mystery why women's curling is so popular. I will be watching this round for that alone.; 12/6/17, 5:40 AM